Thanks to pesticide usage falling with Bt cotton, another pest is assuming menacing proportions. Woes of the cotton growers seem to be unending. While the threat of annihilation of their crops from the dreaded American Bollworm has abated thanks largely to the availability of pest-protected transgenic Bt-cotton hybrids, another pest is threatening to become as menacing as the bollworm. This is mealy bug, a plant sap-sucking insect having various species, some of which have multiplied to assume perilous proportions chiefly because of the reduction of pesticide use after the spread of Bt-cotton. A significant presence of these white-coated insects, viewed earlier as merely minor pests, was observed on the cotton crop in Gujarat in 2006 and, subsequently, in Punjab and the adjoining northern cotton-growing tracts in 2007. There have been reports of its growing populations from most other cotton-growing states as well. In 2005, the mealy bugs had destroyed almost the entire cotton crop in several parts of Pakistan, notably in Multan, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas and Tandu Allahyar areas. What is worse, entomologists feel that if preventive action is not initiated immediately, the pest may cause extensive damage to the next cotton crop to be planted from April onwards. For, a good deal of pest load already exists in the cotton belts. Apart from cotton, this pest can also pose hazards for other commercial crops, including grapes and jute and mesta, where it can lead to 50 to 100 per cent yield loss. Fortunately, the agriculture ministry has taken the forewarning by the scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the seriousness it merits. It has, consequently, prepared a programme for creating awareness of the mealy bug menace and to educate farmers on the ways of combating it. The scheme, costing Rs 130 lakh, will be implemented from the coming kharif season itself. According to O M Bambawale, director of the New Delhi-based National Centre for Integrated Pest Management, the widespread cultivation of Bt-cotton, which had resulted in substantial yield gains, had also led to a change in the overall pest scenario. Instead of bollworms, several other pests were threatening the crop now. These include parawilt, grey mildew, mirid bugs, mealy bug, thrips and the like. The mealy bug insect, indeed, is different from most other pests in several respects which pose special problems in combating it. The most significant